Source-specific traffic noise exposure and cardiovascular mortality in Switzerland
Invited paper
Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute
Monday 1 june, 2015, 12:40 - 13:00
0.4 Brussels (189)
Abstract:
Background: Little is known about how acute and short-term noise effects
translate into long-term health consequences. Further, it is unclear which noise
exposure patterns (degree of intermittence of noise events, diurnal
distributions) and exposure windows (day, night, early morning, etc.) are most
detrimental for health. Within the framework of SiRENE, Short and Long Term
Effects of Traffic Noise Exposure, one aim is to investigate the association
between source-specific noise exposure and cardiovascular mortality in the Swiss
population.
Methods: SiRENE implements a comprehensive, nationwide assessment of noise
exposure, designed to identify the most health relevant noise exposure patterns.
It includes a novel acoustical parameter to quantify traffic noise intermittence
– ‘Event ratio’ which is a measure of event-based sound intensity. Exposure for
year 2011, estimated at façade points for all buildings in Switzerland, is
linked by dwelling unit and floor to participants in the Swiss National Cohort
(SNC). The SNC is a near-complete population cohort, based on a probabilistic
linkage between the censuses and mortality records. We use Cox proportional
hazards models with age as the underlying timescale to investigate the
association between mortality from cardiovascular endpoints and noise exposure
(day and night Leq and event ratio) from the year 2000 to the end of follow-up.
Results: For the period 2000-2008, there were ~160,000 cardiovascular deaths in
adults aged 30+ years at baseline (N=5.4 million): 17% by acute myocardial
infarction (IDC10: I21); 45% by other ischemic heart diseases (IDC10:120, I22-
I24); 24% by stroke (I60-I64); and 14% by hypertensive diseases (I10-I15).
Preliminary results for the association between road, rail and aircraft noise
exposure and these cardiovascular endpoints will be reported, including insights
into potential source-specific exposure-response functions.